Indian TV reporter found dead after covering violence at farmers’ protest

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent investigation to establish exactly how TV reporter Raman Kashyap sustained fatal injuries while covering a protest by farmers in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state on 3 October. Those responsible must be brought to justice, RSF says. Raman Kashyap, who often worked for Sadhna Prime News TV, disappeared after the protest in Lakhimpur Kheri district turned violent and he was not located until his family found his body in a morgue the next day. The violence erupted when Ajay Kumar Mishra, a local politician who is minister…Read more

Pakistani journalist Shahid Zehri killed in targeted car explosion

Pakistan authorities must thoroughly and swiftly investigate the killing of Shahid Zehri, hold those responsible to account, and do everything in their power to protect the safety of members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 10, Zehri, a reporter for the privately owned news channel Metro 1 News, was killed in an explosion while driving his car in the southern city of Hub in the Lasbela district of Baluchistan province, according to various news reports citing local police officials, and a report by his employer. The Baloch Liberation Army, an ethnic separatist group,…Read more

Tanzanian cartoonist detained over cartoon of president

  • Posted on October 12, 2021
  • /Under Arrest
Tanzanian flag with fabric structure Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns cartoonist Optatus Fwema’s arbitrary detention for the past two weeks in Tanzania over a cartoon of the president. This is the latest chilling message to journalists in a country where press freedom has been worsening steadily in recent years. Fwema has been held at Oysterbay police station in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s business capital, ever since he was arrested at his home on 24 September. The police returned to his home on 5 October to look for incriminating evidence without telling his lawyer.…Read more

Indian journalist Raman Kashyap killed amid Uttar Pradesh clashes

Authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh must swiftly and thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Raman Kashyap and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, Kashyap, a freelance journalist who contributed to the local news channel Sadhna TV, was found dead from injuries he sustained while covering a protest the previous day by local farmers that turned violent, according to multiple news reports and a local reporter familiar with his case who asked not to be named citing fear of reprisal. Kashyap was covering a protest in the city…Read more

Maldives legislature considers bill that could force journalists to reveal sources

Maldives legislators must reject a provision of the proposed Evidence Bill that would allow courts to compel journalists and media outlets to reveal their sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The bill, which CPJ reviewed, includes a broad provision allowing courts to order outlets and journalists to reveal anonymous sources when a court decides that the “public interest of revealing a journalist’s source” outweighs “the negative impact on the source or others” as well as “the ability of journalists to continue to find factual sources of information and bring such information to…Read more

Bangladesh authorities charge 3 journalists under Digital Security Act

Bangladesh authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalists Kabir Kishore, Tasneem Khalil, and Shafiqul Islam Kajol, and cease harassing members of the press under the draconian Digital Security Act, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 8 and 12, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted Digital Security Act charges against Kishore, a cartoonist; Khalil, editor of the Sweden-based news website Netra News; and Kajol, a photographer and editor with the Daily Pakkhakal magazine, according to multiple news reports and a person familiar with the cases, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal by Bangladesh…Read more

Tanzania suspends newspaper for one month

The Tanzanian government’s decision to suspend an independent weekly for 30 days is “arbitrary and excessive” and a complete contradiction of the new president’s declared intention to stop sanctioning the media, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says. One of Tanzania’s most popular Swahili-language newspapers, Raia Mwema has been missing from the country’s newsstands since 6 September, one day after government spokesman Gerson Msigwa announced that it was being suspended for 30 days, above all because it identified a man who killed three police officers and an embassy security guard on 25 August as a member of the ruling…Read more

Indian finance authorities raid offices of Newslaundry and Newsclick websites

Indian authorities must stop harassing employees of the news websites Newslaundry and Newsclick and let them work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At about noon on September 10, officials from the national Income Tax Department raided the two outlets’ offices in New Delhi as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion, according to newsreports and statements by the outlets. Officials downloaded data from office computers and the personal cell phone and laptop of Newslaundry editor-in-chief Abhinandan Sekhri, and in the Newsclick raid took various financial documents as well as email archives from editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and Pranjal, an editor at the outlet…Read more

Singapore High Court rules that The Online Citizen bloggers defamed prime minister

The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed alarm at the Singapore High Court’s ruling awarding Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong more than US$156,500 in damages in defamation suits against bloggers Terry Xu and Rubaashini Shunmuganathan. The High Court on September 1 ruled that Xu, chief editor of The Online Citizen news blog, “acted recklessly, with indifference to the truth and with ill-will” in publishing Shunmuganathan’s August 2019 article about tensions among Prime Minister Lee’s siblings that caused “serious harm” to the premier’s reputation, according to news reports.  According to Xu, who spoke with CPJ via email, and…Read more

Zimbabwe journalist detained, charged for filming police clash with vendors

  • Posted on August 31, 2021
  • /Under Arrest
Zimbabwean authorities must drop all charges against journalist Elizabeth Mashiri, stop arbitrarily arresting journalists, and allow them to work without interference, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 17, police in Gweru, the capital of Midlands Province, arrested Mashiri, an assistant editor and Midlands bureau chief for privately owned daily newspaper the Mirror, and detained her for about four hours at the central police station on allegations of disorderly conduct, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, a news report, a statement by the Zimbabwe chapter of the regional press freedom…Read more